Sunday, May 2, 2010
The Foreign Correspondent: Part 1
In book The Foreign Correspondent, Alan Furst develops the main character in an original way. He begins by following a character who is first assumed to be the main character until he is gunned down by a group of fascist secret service assassins, the OVRA. Upon realizing that he is dead the reader is left to question who the main character is. The scene soon changes to a secretive meeting where you hear a mans name mentioned, Carlo Weisz, a reporter who has been chosen to take the place of the man who had just been murdered. This is when the reader finally is introduced to Carlo Weisz, he is in Spain reporting on the Spanish Civil War that is going on all around him. You soon learn that he is an Italian expatriate, which is strange because he is reporting on the story from the side of the Communists. The story which he is working on is about the famed “Garibaldi Battalion” a battalion of almost all Italians that are fighting fascism because they do not agree with it, this tells the reader a lot about Carlo Weisz who you then assume to be and expatriate not by choice but because he doesn’t agree with the fascists. While he is there he interviews a man that goes by Captain Ferrera. The scene ends after Carlo Weisz begins to interview him. The author uses a strange technique to introduce the main character that sets the scene and introduces the reader to other characters very well
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Wow! This book sounds quite confusing! There must have been alot going on in the first part of this book or you must have read alot! I think this would be a good book for a guy to read because it sounds action packed and kind of mysterious. I wonder if the strange technique will continue throughout the book to introduce certain things?
ReplyDeleteCivil wars have always interested me. You did a great job capturing the setting in this blog. I am interested to see how this book carries out, will it continue to follow the same character? Will the author keep using such intricate writing techniques? I am looking forward to the next post to further my knowledge of Carlo.
ReplyDeleteI would have to agree with Djdynasty3000 because it would be confusing to have the main character be switched especially right at the beginning. Besides being a confusing story, i would also like to say that this topic sounds very interesting to me and i am concidering reading this book. My question to you is, Where you blown away when the character that you thought was the main character was killed right at the very start of the novel?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a great book. I hope your liking it a lot. The book started off differently from a typical book. Did you liked how it started off and having the main character come later in the book?
ReplyDeleteThis books POV setting is really weird and confusing. How does the POV coming from someone that is dead in the story alter how it is told?
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a very interesting book. i know that you like to read about the war so this fits you well. you did a great job describing the book in detail and making it easy to understand.
ReplyDeleteI think it's an interesting approach to introduce a new protagonist after the book is well underway. Have you been satisfied with the role of the main character? Have there been additional switcheroos since then? I'll probably answer my own questions when I read your other posts.
ReplyDeleteDon't forget that you need to include a direct quote somewhere in your post. You can choose how to best integrate it.
wow this book is full of action right from the start! sounds like you will not be getting board with this book any time soon.
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